Absence, Hearts and Other Stuff
by Aradia2
Summary: Does absence always make the heart grow fonder? PostCelebration


Title: Absence, Hearts and Other Stuff  
  
Author: Aradia Rated: PG  
  
Pairing: Jackie/Hyde  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Jackie, Hyde or anything pertaining to That 70's Show. Please don't sue me college has already put me so far in debt that I'll probably never crawl out of it.  
  
Summary: Just another post-celebration get back together fic (yeah summaries suck & I suck at writing them)  
  
Notes: This is not beta'd so if it sucks really bad, sorry. If anyone would like to beta it please email me @ aradia60505@yahoo.com Thank You and enjoy!  
  
~!~!~!~  
  
Two months, sixteen days and twelve hours since Jackie had left for the summer and Steven Hyde had just finished moving into his room in Chancelor Freshman Dorm at The University of Wisconsin. He had succumbed to the over- educated, money grubbing morons that made up the government and was paying four thousand dollars a semester to be brainwashed by a bunch of "so called professors" who couldn't possibly know the first thing about the real world. And the most depressing thing about all of it was that he was doing it for a girl that didn't love him.  
  
Sighing Hyde dropped his last load of clothes into a dresser drawer and picked up a crumpled photograph that had been lying on top of it. It was a school picture of a very young and naïve Jackie Burkhardt. She was smiling impishly at the camera, her perfectly coifed hair shining and her rusted red blouse almost faded away by the wrinkles in the picture. Hyde remembered the day she had given it to him. He was in the basement with Donna and Eric per usual when she had come bouncing in on Kelso's arm. Smiling with excitement she started passing them out to everybody as if they were the ticket into heaven or something. She rambled on about how it had been her best school picture ever and she was never handing out another one because there was no way she could ever take a better school picture. He remembered rolling his eyes in annoyance at the idle chatter but her face had shined.  
  
"Hyde. Hyde!" Hyde jumped at the sound of a voice behind him and dropped the picture into his drawer, closing it quickly before turning to find a hyped up Kelso standing in his doorway.  
  
"Hey, man."  
  
"So where's your roommate? Hasn't he come yet?"  
  
"Roommates are a cruel invention thought up by some government scumbag. So I paid the extra fifty bucks and got a single."  
  
"Wait," Kelso said, sitting down on Hyde's desk. "Are you telling me that you have your own room?"  
  
"I thought that's what I just said."  
  
"All right! Party in Hyde's room like every night!" Kelso shouted before running out the door. Hyde shook his had and dropped down onto his extra- long twin bed, staring blindly up at the cracks in the ceiling. Tomorrow he would go to his first college class. He was sure that his first class at least would be a blow off course. English composition couldn't be any different in college then it was in high school. Although he wasn't sure if he actually took English composition in high school. Most of his high school classes were a hazy, pot induced blur, just like, he was sure, his college classes would be.  
  
~!~!~!~  
  
Ever since her first plane ride Jackie had always loved the frantic rush of travelers trying to get to wherever they were going as fast as they could. She had been six and it had been summer vacation then too, but to Disney World instead of some snazzy resort in the Bahamas. She remembered holding onto the hands of her parents and planning what she was going to say to Mickey when she saw him. Back then she thought that life couldn't get any better and it turned out she was right. Life was brilliant, happy and no where near as complicated as it had become.  
  
Now, Jackie took no time to appreciate the classy business men or the harried mothers. She didn't stop to smile charmingly at a handsome pilot or an old man leaning heavily on his cane. Instead her pace was brisk, her arms and purse swinging and her head high in the air. She held one carry on bag and was on her way to baggage claim for the other four suitcases. When she arrived at baggage claim she paused a moment to convince one of the high school boys who had been hired to help old ladies with their bags, to help her with her own luggage. She assured him it was okay to pause from helping grandma and her eight grandchildren. She was Jacqueline Burkhardt and nobody expected her to carry her own bags.  
  
Forty-five minutes later her bags were stacked in Donna's room and she was out the door again. She ran out of the house and jumped into the waiting cab. She had no time to unpack or freshen up, even though traveling always made her look like hell. She was a woman on a mission.  
  
~!~!~!~  
  
Hyde was still staring up at his cracked ceiling when Kelso came bursting in carrying a six-pack and followed by some random people that Hyde had never seen before.  
  
"What the hell are you doing, man?" Hyde asked. He sat up and stared at Kelso hoping, but not expecting, a reasonable answer.  
  
"Your room's the party room. You have the single, man." Kelso said before opening a beer and chugging it. A couple of the jock type guys cheered him on. Kelso finished the beer and burped.  
  
"Kelso, we're in a college dorm. The entire place is a god damned party!" Hyde spit out angrily.  
  
"Yeah, but I figured a party in your room would do you some good. Cheer you up. You've been so moody lately. Eric thinks you have menopause."  
  
"Eric's a dumbass. I have every right to be moody so just leave me alone."  
  
"Hyde, man, you just don't know Jackie. If you did you wouldn't be so depressed. Once she's done being mad she'll come crawling back. Of course, it'll be to me and not you."  
  
"I swear Kelso, if you say one more word about.Jackie." Hyde drifted off, his eyes now glued to a vision at the door.  
  
~!~!~!~  
  
"Hey, Steven."  
  
"Hey." Hyde said. Kelso whipped around to see Jackie standing in the doorway wearing a pair of slacks and a small tank top. Her hair was a little mussed but she looked beautiful as always. Her beauty was the entire reason he kept after her. She was simply put the most beautiful person he had ever seen and that was including himself. It never occurred to him that she might need something more then good looks.  
  
"Jackie, your back." Kelso said.  
  
Jackie tore her eyes away from Hyde and glance at Kelso smiling softly. "Hi, Michael. I just got back." She said before turning back to stare shyly at Hyde. She had planned what she was going to say on the plane but now that she was standing in front of him she couldn't remember any of it.  
  
"So, how was your summer?" Hyde asked. His entire world had focused on her. He no longer heard the music and laughter in the background. He didn't feel himself being jostled by drunken college students or hear Kelso chug another beer, hoping to impress Jackie. He saw only her, could feel only her presence.  
  
"Great, except for cleaning up liquor bottles, bailing my mother out of jail and seeing the pool boy walk butt assed naked into my kitchen at eleven o'clock in the morning. How about you?"  
  
"Hung out in Foreman's basement mostly."  
  
"Steven, can I talk to you?" Jackie asked after a few minutes of silence.  
  
"Sure, talk away."  
  
"Alone."  
  
"Oh, yeah." Hyde said. He turned and stopped the Led Zeppelin record that was playing. "Everybody out! I mean now!" He yelled as people groaned and started to gather what was left of the beer. Eventually they all left, except for Kelso.  
  
"Michael, I need to talk to Steven alone."  
  
"Oh, you meant me too. Sure, I'll just go check out the orientation stuff downstairs." Kelso said as he turned toward the door. He paused with his hand on the door knob and turned back into the room. "It was good seeing you again, Jackie." He said quietly.  
  
"It was good seeing you too, Michael." She said, smiling the soft smile that she had adopted over the summer and watching as he left the room. Finally alone with Steven Jackie took a deep breath and turned to look at him.  
  
"So what did you want to talk about?" Hyde asked. Jackie looked at her hands, twisting them together in front of her and frowned.  
  
"You know I spent most of the summer hating you? I would hold my mother's hair as she puked in the toilet and curse you. If I had found a magic genie or a Mexican gun slinger you would probably be dead right now. Then after about the fiftieth time I had to clean up my mother's vomit I began to think. I spent the rest of the summer thinking, about you and about me, and yeah okay, sometimes about what the new fall colors are going to be." Jackie lifted her head to look into his eyes. "You want to know what conclusion I came to."  
  
"Pink and Yellow?" He guessed, trying desperately to lighten the mood. Jackie rolled her eyes and continued to talk.  
  
"What happened last year was a mess and you screwed up big time. When you told me about that nurse."  
  
"Jackie." Hyde interrupted.  
  
"Steven, let me finish. When you told me about that nurse you broke my heart into more pieces then Michael ever could. I wasn't sure I could get past it. But then my mom said something and.Do you remember that time in the car when you told me that I deserved someone better then Kelso? You said I'd find someone great and you were right. I did find someone great."  
  
"You did?" Hyde asked refusing to allow himself to hope.  
  
"Yeah, you. And if you still want to, I'm willing to give us another try."  
  
Hyde didn't know what to say. The only thought that passed through his mind was, "Please, God, don't let this be a dream."  
  
"Unless of course you don't want to.or you found somebody else." Jackie said, drawing conclusions from his silence. She blushed with embarrassment. She turned around quickly not wanting him to see her tears.  
  
"Has all that hairspray killed your brain?" Hyde asked in amazement. "I couldn't follow through on one single date I made this summer, not even Bethany of the double D bra! The only thing I wanted all summer is another chance with you."  
  
"Steven." Jackie said, walking the few feet to him and cupping his face in her hands. Hyde smiled down at her.  
  
"I love you." He whispered. Jackie smiled even more brilliantly.  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Why would I lie about something like that? I don't use those words lightly. In fact, I try not to use them at all." Hyde rolled his eyes at her. Sighing he leaned down to brush his lips over hers. Jackie smiled and leaned into him preparing for the challenge that was Steven Hyde. Then she pushed away and stabbed a finger into his chest.  
  
"But if you ever cheat on me again I'll drop you in a pit of starving lions. I swear it. I may not want to live without you but I can and I will. You got a pass this time but I will not go through what I did with Michael, with you. I'll kill you first."  
  
"Did you just threaten to drop me in a pit of starving lions?" Hyde asked. Jackie nodded and Hyde smiled. "Inventive."  
  
The End 


End file.
